Must Read Book: Rework

I just finished reading Rework, by the guys from 37signals. This was an absolute joy to read and really inspiring. I won't go into a lot of detail, since the book is a really quick read, and I don't want to give a ton of stuff away. I will say this. If you're like me, and come from and Agile background, I think you will really enjoy the book. It's also inspired me to get of my ass and do some of the things I've been putting off, like writing on this blog. Do yourself a favor and pick this book up and give it a read.

Also, if you don't follow the 37signals blog, I would highly recommend that as well. There is a lot of good stuff that comes across there. I sound like I'm pimping this guys, I'm really not, it's just great reading.

It's Been A While

Well, it's been over a year since I've written anything on this blog, so I figured I would put a few tidbits out there and hopefully it will lead to some posts of substance in the future.

First off, I've switched gears and have been working for Localbase Inc. for the last 9 months building a small business platform for the social web. We're pretty excited about the project and we are looking to launch in about 3-6 months. Until then, here's some stuff I've been doing over that time.

1. If you've read my posts before, you'll know that I was heavy into Java, and really into Groovy. I'm still a fan of Groovy, but since joining Localbase I've had the absolute pleasure of working with Python and Django. Our platform is being built on the Django framework, and I absolutely love it. I'm also really liking Python, although I do like Groovy's syntax a little better.
2. I'm beginning to love Javascript. For those of you that now me you're probably shocked right now. Nine months ago, I absolutely hated Javascript and would often volunteer to write tests or do documentation just so I didn't have to mess with it. Now, I find myself volunteering to do the client side work for our platform. Part of this is due to Dojo. The documentation isn't stellar, but I still love it anyways. The other part is this sweet little Javascript framework that we (I say we, but it was really Rob) created for Localbase. It makes my life very easy. Hopefully we can find some time in the future and contribute it back to the community.
3. I still love REST. During my time in the Java world, I worked with Jersey a lot, and absolutely loved it. I can't say that I've found the equivalent in the Python/Django world, but we have found won that works great and I really like it a lot. If you're in need of one for your Django project, check out Piston. Decent documentation, and really easy to use. Testing your REST services is super easy as well.
4. We switched from using Subversion to using Mercurial about 8 months ago. So much faster than Subversion. If you're thinking about switching to a distributed version control system, I would highly recommend it. We are using Bitbucket, and it's worked out great for us.
5. Yes, my Hawks lost to UNI in the second round. No, I haven't jumped of a cliff yet.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Hopefully this will inspire me to get off my ass and write some blog posts. I'm going to follow this up right now with a new post about a great book I just finished reading. It's definitely a two for one night.